Reply to Are Middle Easterners considered to be 'white'?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My Mother’s (85) ancestry is Syrian-Lebanese and Turkish…but so many generations ago that this distinction has been largely forgotten (first generation changed the family surname) in the interest of integrating, gaining employment and not facing discrimination.

It was very important to my ancestors to “pass” and census records have them recorded as White. Therefore, White we are and pretty much always have been.

My family, like so many, need to have an “I can explain” or asterisk next to the box or at least a few lines where we can include an interesting narrative!

[/quote]

And that is why many Middle Easterners are reluctant to being called "white." If being white was as simple as just being literally white, then Middle Easterners would be fine with being called "white." However, being "white" also has cultural and social implications that do not capture Middle Easterners well. Being white is associated with having privilege, and i[b]magine telling some Afghan Pashtun or Iraqi kid that they're privileged even though the US invaded and bombed their countries on the grounds that they're "other." [/b]

Further, Middle Easterners are proud of their culture, and people who change their names and lose their language, etc are seen as whitewashed. Among Middle Easterners, this is very popular along Lebanese and Syrian Christians/Jews, some of whom won't even call themselves "Arab." I think that Iranian-Americans are a good example of a what well assimilated Middle Eastern population that still keeps in touch with their culture looks like. Iranians in America are very secular, educated, and integrated on average, and yet they also don't change their names to western names, most parents enroll their kids in Farsi classes, and they are all very knowledgeable about their history and culture. I've even met many half Iranians who can speak, read, and write Farsi and have Persian names.

Not only that, but we are seriously lacking important data on Middle Eastern populations in the United States because of how they're classified. We don't have any statistics on them in schools, politics, healthcare, etc, so if there are any disparities they face, there is no way we would know. Walt Whitman HS in MoCo has a ton of Iranian and Afghan students, to the point where I wouldn't be surprised if Middle Eastern students are at least 5-10% of the school's "white" population, but we don't have any stats on their academic performance, barriers they may face, etc [/quote]

As Russia did to Ukraine[/quote]

When Russia invaded Ukraine, the entire western world supported Ukraine and suddenly every country could take endless refugees. News reporters specifically said that they're not like other refugees because they're "civilized," "European-looking with blonde hair and blue eyes," and "not like Syrian and Afghan kids." When America invaded Afghanistan, islamaphobia skyrocketed in the United States, entire villages full of women and children were wiped off the map in rural provinces, soldiers raped/killed/raided civilians, and a plethora of uninvestigated and unreported war crimes were committed. Clearly Afghans have "white" privilege when their fellow whites from the western world abandoned the country and left 90% of its inhabitants starving and bleeding over wars they didn't start. If Afghans, Syrians, Palestinians, and Iraqis were treated the same as Ukrainians, none of them would think twice about being classified as "white."[/quote]

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